In order to minimise the amount of dirt and water carried into buildings on the feet of people entering the building, entrance mats are placed inside doorways. For domestic or other light use applications coir type or throw down matting is used, although this has only a limited life span. The majority of high traffic applications require the use of mats formed of metal or plastic extrusions, typically of aluminium or PVC, pieced together by wire or other forms of coupling. Such mats are hard wearing but tend to be expensive and, due to the nature of their construction, are commonly supplied in standard sizes or must be made to order. Also, the presence of metal in the mats may affect the operation of security devices which are used in stores to detect the unauthorised removal of goods from the store. Further, this form of mat will often move under the feet, which may be unsettling, and the gaps between the extrusions provide traps for heels and the points of walking sticks. In mats manufactured without the use of metal, solid, extruded PVC has been utilised although it has been found that the hard PVC used tends to break up after a relatively short period of use.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved entrance matting which obviates or mitigates these disadvantages.